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Warlock
Warlocks were once arcanists or shamans (in the case of the orcs) — who in pursuit of ever-greater sources of power abandoned their studies of the Arcane or Nature and delved into darker, Fel-based magic (Shadow). Warlocks still retain their skills in the manipulation of the chaotic element of Fire, although their focus is on delivering excruciating pain and drawing out the suffering of their victims. No longer do they aim to use the effective application of Arcane energies to efficiently dispose of their targets from a safe distance. Background Warlocks are masters of the dark arts, devoted to furthering their understanding and use of Shadow and Fire based magics, along with the summoning of demons, who exist within the Twisting Nether. They initially appeared on Azeroth during the First War, when Gul'dan, the first of their kind among the invading orc clans of Draenor, led the Horde across the dimensional gulf through the Dark Portal while in servitude to the Burning Legion. Warlocks are used as damage dealers, but can store the target´s soul to resurrect him or heal himself by draining enemy's life. The warlock can summon an Imp without a Soul Shard. However, other demons require a soul shard or other reagents to be summoned. Philosophy "Warlocks... we don't need to eat, we don't need to drink, we don't even need to breathe. We can subsist entirely on the suffering of our enemies." - A Warlock's philosophy. History : Warlock - From the Old English wærloga; "oath-breaker" or "deceiver". The eredar of the Burning Legion are credited as the original warlocks and wielders of dark magics, corrupted from the powerful and magically attuned eredar of Argus. In most societies, the warlocks now live on the fringe of civilization, tolerated but not trusted. Human warlocks meet in secret in the basement of a bar in Stormwind. Thrall has expressed discomfort with the warlocks but understands the necessities in using them. Conventional spell casters often see warlock magic as a vain attempt at gaining power. Although many that consort with demons fall to darkness, the warlocks of the Horde and the Alliance advocate bending demonic forces to one's will without succumbing to complete corruption. These spell casters can summon demons to serve them, and they can also cast many painful spells that slowly eat at the life of their enemies. Warlocks are usually physically weak compared to other classes, but they compensate for this deficiency with their potent array of spells and their demonic minions. Compared to other spell casters, warlocks are among the strongest and often depend on the sacrifice of their own blood to fuel their magical powers. In the world of Azeroth, there are many races who presently wield the dark power of the Nether. Playable ones include: humans, gnomes, orcs, Forsaken, and blood elves. Each has its own history in the dark demon arts. Notable warlocks in the lore * - Gul'dan * - Archimonde * - Kil'jaeden * - Medivh * - Kael'thas Sunstrider Overview Warlocks are unique among the DPS caster classes because of their ability to convert health into mana. They can be + Damage or + Damage & Crit players. Warlocks have the most powerful assortment of Damage over Time spells when used in conjunction, and also the most variety in debuffs and summonable minions. Just like a Mage, a Warlock’s Crowd control abilities appropriately used can stave off certain doom for the Warlock and their allies, and the Warlock’s sustained Burst damage when suitably specced and geared can rival those of a Mage. However, the Warlock’s Area of Effect spells are not as varied as those of their Mage brethren, although when used appropriately they have powerful applications in group play. Warlocks are well versed in the "shock and horror" tactics of warfare, and their manipulation of Shadow energies can send their opponents reeling in Fear. At low levels, warlocks rely primarily on minions and Damage over Time (DoT) spells to deal out damage while fearing their enemies to prevent retribution. Endgame warlocks either choose to maximize the effects of their DoTs and Curses through the Affliction tree, increase the utility of their summoned minions and stones through the Demonology tree, or lay waste the opposition with Burst damage and Direct damage spells in the Destruction tree. In previous versions of WoW, the 8-debuff and 16-debuff limits prevented Warlocks from maximizing their damage output through Affliction spells, and Warlocks were relegated to chain-casting their Direct damage spells to maintain DPS in PvE raids. This has changed and there is now no reachable debuff limit, and Affliction DPS is now competitive in a raid environment. The Warlock can learn to summon magical mounts. Other classes, except Paladins, Death Knights, and Druids (Flight Form), must purchase their own mounts with gold or via PvP. Being a Warlock demands certain things: being able to engage multiple targets simultaneously while keeping tabs on your minion, to make split-second strategic decisions on cast rotations depending on the situation, careful shard management and even more careful aggro management. Being a Warlock also rewards many things: they are PvP powerhouse due to naturally high stamina values, they have the ability to apply debilitating Crowd control abilities, and in PvE their damage output in multiple target situations can rival those of other DPS classes who focus fire on a single target. Their ability to drain and use souls as Soul Shards is also appealing to many. Races and starting stats Weapons and armor Warlocks can wear Cloth armor only, and can initially use Daggers and Unarmed combat in battle. They can also use Wands for ranged combat, and equip off-hands to enhance various skills. They can train at a weapon master for to gain the ability to use One-Handed Swords (Undercity, Silvermoon, Stormwind) and Staves (Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Stormwind, Darnassus). More information regarding Warlock-specific armor can be found at Warlock Sets. Attributes Stamina is one of the key Warlock attributes, especially for Demonology Warlocks. The main reason for this is that Warlocks can convert their health to mana through the spell Life Tap, thus allowing stamina to mostly fill the role for intellect as well. Many Warlocks also depend on large health pools as their main source of defense. As a primary spell caster, the Warlock also has great use for all the standard caster attributes, such as intellect and spell damage. Consequently Warlocks have no use for strength and also little use for agility. Spirit regenerates health and mana for Warlocks very slowly, giving it no practical use when compared to abilities such as Life Tap and Dark Pact. However due to the changes to Fel Armor spirit is now a viable stat for a warlock to have. The value of spell crit depends on the talent build. With Ruin and the use of direct damage spells, it is very good. But for an Affliction Warlock that mostly uses DoTs, it is worth very little. The exception to this is if you put pointing into Pandemic which allows your Spell Crit to increase SOME of your spells damage. However Spellpower is still the more important attribute. The Demonology talent Demonic Knowledge gives the Warlock bonus spell damage of an amount equal to 4/8/12 percent of their active demon's stamina + intellect, which are bolstered by the Warlock's own stamina and intellect values. In a raid scenario, Spell hit rating becomes significantly more valuable, taking precedence over all other stats and it is advisable that you reach the spell hit rating cap (17% as of 3.0.2). After this point, however, spell hit rating is useless. Spell-hit-crippling debuffs are too few and far between to be considered. The value of item attributes varies greatly for Warlocks depending on their talent choices and their main focus in the game whether it be leveling, raiding or PvP. Below is an example of the Attribute values for a raiding Warlock (in descending order). Affliction Spell hit (until capped with Suppression) > Spellpower > Spell haste & Spell Crit Demonology Spell hit > Spellpower > Spell Haste > Spell Crit Destruction Spell hit (until capped with Cataclysm) > Spell Crit > Spellpower > Spell Haste In PvP for Warlocks the focus is somewhat different as survivability takes precedence, often forcing Warlocks to greatly sacrifice DPS in order to obtain higher survivability in high end arena regardless of talent choice although all these stats have to be balanced relative to each other for the best results. Resilience (until the 400+) > Stamina (until 12k-13k hp) > Spell Damage > Spell Crit See also Resilience, Spell Damage and Stamina for more information Soul Shards A large number of the Warlock's skills and spells rely on a Soul Shard reagent. They are obtained by using the Drain Soul spell. To create a soul shard, the warlock must be channelling this spell as the target dies. Only targets that would give experience (or honor in the case of a PvP target) to the warlock will yield a Soul Shard. Shadowburn (talent) also creates a soul shard if the enemy dies within five seconds of casting it if the target rewards experience, reputation or honor, but since it also costs a shard to cast, the net effect is zero shards (or less if the cast is mistimed or spell is resisted). Soul Shards are used to summon all minions except for the imp, enslave demons, cast many high level spells (such as Soul Fire), and create Healthstones, Soulstones, Firestones, and Spellstones. Additionally, they are required for the Ritual of Summoning spell that allows a Warlock to summon party members to the Warlock's location, and Ritual of Souls which allows the Warlock to summon a Soul Well that has 25 Healthstone charges or lasts for three minutes, which ever comes first. Abilities Find detailed information about the warlock's various abilities on the Warlock abilies page. Minions Warlocks can summon a variety of minions, each exhibiting different skill sets which are useful in different situations. *Imp (Level Obtained: As early as level 1, though the quest level is level 4. Gnome, Undead, Human, Orc, Blood Elf) : The Imp's main role is a support minion, designed to do additional damage alongside the caster via its Firebolt attack. The Imp is very fragile and will die very quickly if attacked, but it requires no Soul Shard to summon, and is often used to farm new Soul Shards when you run out and cannot summon a different minion. Other Imp abilities include Phase Shift (allowing the Imp to shift out of phase and cannot be attacked by enemies), Blood Pact, a large health bonus, and Fire Shield, a Thorns-like damage shield (with fire resist at higher levels) which he will cast on you and your teammates who get hit. With the Improved Imp and Improved Firebolt talents, the Imp is a damaging minion in the warlock's arsenal; at least until he runs out of mana. Empowered Imp near the bottom of the Destruction Tree adds utility of the Imp to the Destruction spec. The Imp is also useful as a mana battery for affliction warlocks using Dark Pact due to his ability to stay out of harms way and his fast mana regeneration. *Voidwalker (Level Obtained: 10, Gnome, Undead, Human, Orc, Blood Elf) : This demon deals little damage, but has very good armor and good hit points. He is excellent while soloing, because he is an excellent tank, is able to keep aggro and has high armor and health. He is also excellent for farming Soul Shards (provided you have one to summon him with). The Abyss Shard was formerly able to summon a Voidwalker without a shard requirement which made it useful for warlocks of the high levels who have problems finding mobs of the appropriate level to generate shards. Blizzard, however, changed it to the current +15 stamina and removing the mana requirement of summoning the Voidwalker, whilst simultaneously releasing an expansion further reducing the area of the world available to the warlock to obtain Soul Shards. The Voidwalker's main ability, Torment, is an aggro generating move that causes enemies to lose interest in the warlock and instead attack the Voidwalker. It isn't a taunt which is generally accepted to mean a move that causes the taunter to move to the top of the aggro table regardless of where they were previously. There is also a PBAOE version of Torment called Suffering. At higher levels, however, it is unable to hold a mob's attention for very long. Additional Voidwalker spells include Sacrifice, which kills your Voidwalker but creates a 30-second damage absorption shield for the warlock, and Consume Shadows which is an out of combat self-heal for the Voidwalker. As of patch 3.0.2, Consume Shadows also dramatically increases stealth detection of all allies near the Voidwalker while it is being channelled (6 seconds), essentially the Paranoia buff which previously belonged to the Felhunter. The duration and pet it belongs to makes it of no significant tactical value. *Succubus (Level Obtained: 20, Undead, Orc, Alliance) : The Succubus is replete with spells that deal damage and mesmerize the enemy in different ways. Her first ability, Lash of Pain, is a direct-damage, low-mana cast that deals shadow damage to her target. Other spells include Soothing Kiss, which will reduce threat (the reverse of the Voidwalker's Torment ability) and Seduction, which charms a target for 15 seconds (or until attacked). The Succubus also has a self-only Lesser Invisibility spell. Succubus deals the most damage of all the basic minions, without talent upgrades. At higher levels the succubus is not a good means of using Crowd Control. Her low health and armor makes her easy to kill, thereby eliminating the Crowd Control ability and leaving the warlock without a pet. A macro utilising Searing Pain before Seduction would help her survival immensely. *Felhunter (Level Obtained: 30, Horde, Alliance) : The Felhunter is your anti-caster minion. Where the Succubus deals lots of melee damage, the Voidwalker is a great tank and the Imp deals lots of ranged damage, the Felhunter has high magic resist and has abilities to Counterspell (Spell Lock), remove buffs from enemies and remove debuffs from friendlies (Devour Magic). Its aura, Fel Intelligence, is beneficial for casters as it increases the intellect and spirit of all nearby party members. Also, it has an offensive spell, Shadow Bite, that deals shadow damage and becomes more powerful with each damage over time effect on the target. The affliction talent, Improved Felhunter, gives your felhunter 4/8% of its mana back when it uses Shadow Bite, and it increases the effectiveness of Fel Intelligence by 5/10%. *Infernal (Level Obtained: 50, from Grimoire of Inferno or Kroshius' Infernal Core) : As of patch 3.0.2, the Infernal has undergone significant changes. The cooldown is reduced from 1 hour to 15 minutes (needs checking as the tooltip says 20 minutes and patch notes say 15 minutes), but instead of lasting 5 minutes and then attacking the warlock after breaking free, it will exist under the warlock's control for 1 minute and then despawn. Also, its damage, health, and armor have been increased, and it can be summoned in arenas as well as indoors. Its level has also been increased from 50 to the level of the summoner. The Infernal deals strictly in melee damage, combined with an immolation effect that hurts all enemies nearby. It also requires an Infernal Stone to summon. *Doomguard (Level Obtained: 60, from Curse of Doom or Ritual of Doom) : The Doomguard is the most powerful Warlock minion. It has the highest HP and AC, as well as having Rain of Fire, Dispel, Cripple and Warstomp. A properly used Doomguard can take out entire camps of enemies at a time before perishing. Curse of Doom has about a 10% chance of summoning a Doomguard if it deals the killing damage. Ritual of Doom will summon a Doomguard 100% of the time, but requires the assistance of your party, and will take a large and potentially fatal portion of one summoner's hp. That one party member could be you, thus unleashing an angry Doomguard on your group mates with no one to enslave it unless another Warlock is in your group. Ritual of Doom requires a Demonic Figurine reagent (costs or less with reputation discount). As of Patch 3.0.2 the Doomguard no longer needs to be enslaved when summoned through Ritual of Doom, it is now automatically enslaved under the warlocks control for fifteen minutes at which point it will despawn. Ritual of Doom still has a 60 minute cooldown. * Felguard was added in the 2.0.1 patch (Obtained: from 41 point tier of the new demonology talent tree) : The Felguard is the most powerful non-enslaved Warlock minion. Overall effectiveness compared to other warlock minions is in a rapid state of flux. As of patch 2.0.3, it has similar DPS to the succubus, while tanking almost as well as the Voidwalker having slightly less armor but much better single target aggro generation (this appears to be changing however, with armor increasing). This demon has abilities that help a lot in PvP as well as when soloing, Intercept among one of the many allows the felguard to charge and stun whoever the warlock targets for 3 seconds and has a cooldown of 30 seconds. It uses the standard single soul shard to summon. *If you have a minion that required a soul shard to summon, you won't get that soul shard back if you summon any other demon (including the same type of demon and the Imp which doesn't require a shard to summon), so it is recommended to set the current demon to stay put, then run away from it until you see the message saying you gained a soul shard. If you summon a mount to decrease the time needed to gain distance from your demon, this will not work, as the demon disappears when you summon your mount, then re-appears when you dismount. This method should only be used when you're safe from attacks. After all, a warlock never has enough soul shards.* Pet scaling * 1 stam gives 0.3 to your pet. * 1 resistance gives 0.4 to your pet. * 1 armor gives 0.35 armor to the pet. * 1 spell damage gives 0.15 spell damage, and 0.57 attack power to your pet. * 1 int gives your pet 0.3 int. * The new demonology talent Fel Synergy increases your pet's armor, stamina, and intellect by 5/10% of your own. Mounts *Felsteed (Level Obtained: 30, from trainers) : The Felsteed is the 'free mount' that Warlocks receive at level 30 (changed from 40 in 2.4.3). Other than Paladins, all other classes must pay for a mount and (changed from 90 in 2.4.3) for training to ride it (these prices can be lowered by being Honored with the mount's city (and pre 2.0 by obtaining the Sergeant rank)). You also gain riding skill 75. *Dreadsteed (Level Obtained: 60, from Mor'zul Bloodbringer in Burning Steppes near the Altar of Storms) : This is now available to train at level 61, requiring 150 riding skill, and the non-epic mount learned :The Dreadsteed is the Warlock Epic level 60 mount. This minion is obtained though a long quest line. It is not free, but it is still available to Warlocks at a significant discount compared to other classes (roughly , compared to ~ for everyone else). This cost can be further reduced by another if you have another warlock who already has the materials. This cost however does not take into account the three materials collection quests you are tasked with which can be very costly, particularly if your Warlock does not possess any of the trade skills required to do them. By completing the quest line you also gain riding skill 150. Damage over Time Spells A Warlock's DoTs are the bread and butter of their arsenal, regardless of talent specialization. * Corruption - Shadow damage. * Immolate - Fire damage which also includes direct damage. * Unstable Affliction - Affliction Talent which deals shadow damage, and if the spell is dispelled by someone, that someone takes shadow-based direct damage and becomes silenced. * Curse of Agony - Shadow damage. * Siphon Life - Affliction Talent which damages the target and heals the warlock for an equal amount. * Haunt - Affliction Talent which increases the effect of all Damage over Time spells on the target by 20% for 12 seconds. When haunt has finished its duration a soul returns to you healing you for 100% of the damage that haunt caused. Direct Damage Spells The Warlock's direct damage spells are either Shadow or Fire based. While a Warlock's direct damage alone does not compare to the Mage, when coupled with their DoTs and a minion they can achieve strong, steady DPS to rival that of other classes. *Shadow Bolt - Shadow damage. *Immolate - Deals an initial amount of fire-based direct damage, and also has damage over time. *Searing Pain - Fire spell producing a higher amount of threat. *Shadowburn - Instant cast, Shadow damage, Destruction talent that costs a Soul Shard, but may return it, and has a cooldown. *Soul Fire - 6 second(long) cast Fire spell requiring a Soul Shard, and has a cooldown. As of 3.0.2, it no longer has a cooldown. *Death Coil - Shadow spell that also heals the warlock equal to the amount of damage dealt, and causes the target to flee in horror for 3 seconds. *Conflagrate - Instant cast, Fire damage, Destruction talent usable only if the target is debuffed with Immolate. *Incinerate - Fire spell with damage that increases if the target is debuffed with Immolate. *Shadowfury - Instant cast (as of 3.0.2), Shadow damage, ground targeted area of effect, Destruction talent which stuns for two seconds. *Chaos Bolt - Fire spell that ignores absorption barriers such as a mage's Mana Shield. Channeled Some of a Warlock's most important spells are channeled, and they can be protected from interruption by damage, using the Fel Concentration and Intensity talents. * Rain of Fire - Ground targeted area of effect fire damage * Hellfire - Point blank area of effect fire damage that also harms the caster. * Drain Life - Drains the target's health, healing the warlock for an equal amount. Modifiable using Demon Armor. * Drain Mana - Drain's the target's mana, returning it to the warlock. * Drain Soul - The primary Soul Shard producing spell. Also deals a small amount of damage, and can be improved to generate mana with the Improved Drain Soul talent. Damage increases 4-fold if the target is under 25% health, however, this has been very hit-and-miss in actual gameplay. Curses The Warlock has available a variety of curses, but only one can be cast upon an enemy at a given time. This creates the need for determining an appropriate Curse in a given situation. *Curse of Agony - Deals increasing damage over time to the target. Its damage can be increased by Amplify Curse. As of 3.0.2, Amplify Curse just reduces the global cooldown by 0.5 seconds. *Curse of Weakness - Reduces the target's attack power. *Curse of Recklessness - Decreases the target's armor value, increases its attack power, and prevents it from running away at low health. *Curse of Tongues - Increases the target's casting time by a percentage. *Curse of Exhaustion - An affliction talent that decreases the target's movement speed by a percentage. Pre-3.0.2, its effect could be increased by Amplify Curse. *Curse of the Elements - Reduces the target's fire, frost, arcane and shadow resistances and increases the respective damages taken by a percentage. *Curse of Doom - Deals damage after a delay of one minute and has a chance to summon a Doomguard if it deals the killing blow. This spell cannot be cast on players, and its damage used to be be increased by Amplify Curse pre-3.0.2. Conjured Items or blood elf warlock in art]] Another powerful ability of the Warlock is to create beneficial items from Soul Shards. Some of these stones are used from the wand slot and others are used from the inventory. All conjured items disappear 15 minutes after logging off. *Create Healthstone - Creates a consumable stone that will heal its owner. It can be given to other players and used like a health potion, but is on a separate timer. *Create Soulstone - Creates a consumable stone used by the warlock to cast a spell that allows the targeted player to self resurrect if they die while the soulstone is active. *Create Firestone - Creates a stone that cannot be given to other players, which provides a weapon applied buff (like wizard oil) that increases damage dealt by direct spells by 1% and spell critical strike rating. Has 5 charges and does not disappear after logging off. *Create Spellstone - Creates a stone that cannot be given to other players, which provides a weapon applied buff (like wizard oil)that increases damage dealt by periodic spells by 1% and spell haste rating. Has 5 charges and does not disappear after logging off. Healing A Warlock is by no means a healer, however, they do have some limited abilities to heal themselves and their minions while in combat. In addition, they can also resurrect by giving a player a soulstone prior to their death. To heal themselves there are Drain Life, Siphon Life (an Affliction talent), Haunt (another Affliction talent) and Death Coil which, conveniently, also damage the target. Demonic Sacrifice (a Demonology talent) restores 2% of total Health every 4 sec, at the cost of a summoned Voidwalker. The Fel Armor spell also regenerates 1% of total health every few seconds, including during combat. Alternatively, Demon Armor increases healing done to the Warlock by 20%, from any source (even bandages and potions), but does not stack with Fel Armor. Destruction warlocks can also regain health equal to 20% of damage caused by Shadowbolt, Shadowburn, Soul Fire, Incinerate, Searing Pain, and Conflagrate though the talent Soul Leech. To heal others (or himself), a Warlock can create a Healthstone and hand it to another friendly player. These can be improved through talents. Burning Crusade introduced the Ritual of Souls which creates a Soul Well from which 10 Master Healthstones can be extracted by members of the party or raid group. To heal their minion they have Health Funnel. This can be improved through the talent system. To resurrect a target a Warlock may use a Soulstone on a friendly player before they die (30 minutes Buff duration and Cooldown), allowing them to resurrect on death. If a warlock uses a soulstone on another member of their party and the warlock (or that member) leave the party, the buff is dismissed. Other The Warlock has several other valuable spells at their disposal. *Fear — sends an enemy fleeing for a period of time, and is a key ability in preventing the warlock from receiving damage. Unlike a Mage’s Polymorph ability, the Warlock’s key Crowd control ability does not increase health generation of the target, so they are able to Fear a target while still doing damage. While damage has a chance to break Fear (no longer true in 3.0.2), this is unlike the Mage's polymorph ability where any and all damage will definitely break the polymorph effect. The main drawback is that when a PvE opponent is feared, they will run at increased speed in an unpredictable direction and will aggro other opponents if they run close to them. This makes the use of fear more risky, especially in crowded environments like instances. The bonus damage output provided by Glyph of Fear provides additional incentive that may outweigh the risk of using Fear. *Howl of Terror — sends 5 enemies around you fleeing in terror for a period of time of approximately 8 seconds. A two point talent on the eighth tier of the Affliction tree can make this spell instant. *Banish — freezes a demon or elemental - preventing them from attacking, though they are also immune to all damage while banished. Can also be used in PvP against enemy demons and Treeform Druids or Treants summoned by Druids. Rank 2 and Rank 1 Banish can be used in conjunction with Curse of Doom to ensure guaranteed damage output with very little risk to the caster. *Ritual of Summoning — a ritual requiring 2 other party members which allows you to summon another party member to your location. As of patch 2.4 warlocks can summon party members who are outside the warlock's instance, given he, of course, has 2 other party members helping him. Zul Aman is an exception to this rule. Also warlocks can summon people without flying mounts into the various instances located in netherstorm something that was restricted before Patch 2.4 (As of patch 3.08 this spell will create a single summoning portal which can be used to summon an unlimited number of players for 5 minutes, at which point it despawns) *Eye of Kilrogg — a fragile but speedy eye that allows you to scout out dangerous areas from a safe distance. The eye has a slow fall ability. It is possible to aggro some bosses with an Eye but most mobs will not aggro from it. However, many mobs will kill the eye if it moves through them but does not engage combat. Caution is advised. (Can be improved with the minor glyph, Glyph of Kilrogg, which increases movement speed by 50% and allows it to fly in applicable areas.) *Unending Breath — allows a target to breathe underwater for 10 minutes. (Can be improved with the minor glyph, Glyph of Unending Breath, which causes it to also increase swim speed by 20% for anyone under its effect.) *Detect Invisibility — allows a target to see invisible units for 10 minutes. To alleviate a common misunderstanding, it should be emphasized that stealth and invisibility are entirely different mechanics. This ability affects only invisible units such as the succubus, mages, and ghosts, not units who are in stealth such as rogues and druids. *Sense Demons — shows demons on the minimap. Melee While the warlock can wield and attack with melee weapons, this is generally not recommended as the warlock's melee abilities do little damage in comparison to their array of offensive spells (exception: a warlock under the effects of Metamorphosis, a Demonology talent). Generally when an opponent gets within melee range the warlock's best bet is to use disabling spells such as Death Coil, Fear, Howl of Terror or Curse of Exhaustion to get away from the enemy. If acquiring range is not possible a warlock is by no means helpless. Defensively, a warlock can share his damage with his pet via Soul Link, punish melee attackers with Fire Shield, and reduce damage received with Demon Armor. Unlike a Hunter a warlock's ranged abilities have no minimum range and their powerful offensive spells can still be used to deal damage to opponents that are very close, though the spells will be more difficult to cast due to spell pushback caused by taking damage. Talents *Affliction - Affliction talents are largely based on increasing the effectiveness of DoTs, Drains, and Curses. Affliction's strengths are its ability to remain mobile in PvP, allow the Warlock to heal himself, and is very mana efficient, great for farming. Key talents include Shadow Mastery, Siphon Life, Fel Concentration, Curse of Exhaustion, Improved Corruption, Dark Pact, Unstable Affliction, Everlasting Affliction and Haunt. Its large DPS output as well as its mana efficiency makes it very good for raiding. However it is mainly a boss killing spec, as most of the damage takes time and trash mobs usually do not live long enough for the warlock's DoTs to do their full damage. *Demonology - Demonology talents are largely based on improving the effectiveness of your minions, conjure spells, and bestowing other passive bonuses. Demonology's strengths are its versatility and survivability. Key talents include Soul Link, Master Demonologist, Demonic Sacrifice, Demonic Embrace, Demonic Knowledge, Demonic Empowerment, Demonic Pact, Summon Felguard, and Metamorphosis. Many use the Demonology tree to overcome the scarcity of spell damage gear at early levels. *Destruction - Destruction talents are largely based on increasing the effect of a warlock's Direct Damage spells, making them (and their dps pets) cast faster, crit more often, and ultimately deal more Burst Damage. Destruction's strength is its ability to quickly kill a single foe. Key talents include Improved Shadow Bolt, Conflagrate, Ruin, Shadowburn, Bane, Backlash, Shadow and Flame Empowered Imp, Shadowfury, and Chaos Bolt. Destruction is the only spec with high damage instant cast spells to quickly finish a fight, and the least mana efficient among the trees as well (however, warlocks still make the most mana efficient classes in the game due to their ability to steal health and use it to regain mana). The damage potential of the Destruction Tree rivals a mage when properly specialized, as well the added benefit of pets and greater mana efficiency than most classes due to a Life Tap and various other health regaining skills. Talent builders can be found at Official Blizzard site, WoW Den's Talent Calculator, WorldofWar.se, WoW Vault, Thottbot, Merciless Talent Calculator. See the Warlock talents page for detailed information and talent trees. Suggested Professions One suggested pair of professions, that go along with the warlock class, is Herbalism and Alchemy. You can use potions for buffs and sell the remaining herbs at the Auction House, most of which sell for more than they do at the vendor. Secondly, Enchanting works equally well and since no gathering profession is needed, it leaves you open to choose any other profession. Tailoring is also a wonderful profession for Warlocks, allowing them to make better gear than that found in some instances (not to mention that one of the items, the , required for one of the Warlock quests can only be gotten from a Tailor). As of The Burning Crusade expansion, the specialty tailoring recipes (Shadowcloth, Spellcloth, and Primal Mooncloth) have many pieces of gear for Warlocks that is easily well worth the effort, such as the Shadow's Embrace and Wrath of Spellfire sets. Tailoring is actually an extremely attractive choice especially for Affliction specced warlocks. Shadow's Embrace is currently considered to be one of the best gear sets available due to its massive amount of spell damage. Socketed with Great Dawnstone, this set will easily accompany the warlock through T4 and T5 content. Additionally, Tailoring provides many useful items like Ebon Shadowbag and Netherweave Net. Since Herbalism and Inscription are a great set of professions for Warlock, one for the herbalism class you can sell the herbs. And two, Glyphs make a lot of money and can be very useful for warlocks. In-Game Expectations Warlocks are taken to raids for their incredible dps and their raid utility. A Warlock's abilities can bring a lot of support to parties, and they are usually biggest source of ranged DPS. Seed of Corruption, when properly used, makes a warlock extremely effective AOE DPS without putting the raid at risk. Soul Shards should be put to good use in order to summon late comers, conjure Soulstones for raid recovery, and distribute Healthstones. Warlocks are also well known for their unique CC abilities such as Fear, Banish, and Enslave Demon. When doing raids, the Warlocks normally assign the responsibility of casting curses between each other. Effective use of curses is expected. It's a Warlock's responsibility to know what curse to use in a given situation unless the raid leader requests otherwise. Due to a demonology warlock's great endurance and survivability, Warlocks are also great for tanking Leotheras the Blind in Serpentshrine Cavern - repeatedly using Searing Pain makes the boss attack the warlock from a distance, allowing the melee DPS to stay close to the boss and avoid his Chaos Blast ability. Warlocks also play an important part in the Illidan fight as they must "Tank" Illidan during one of his phases. The Burning Crusade has brought more utility to warlocks than before. The addition of the soul well has made distributing healthstones a much simpler and convenient process. With Patch 2.4, warlocks finally are able to summon through instance barriers. This makes replacing players in a mid-raid scenario significantly more convenient. Wrath of the Lich King Changes Demonic Circle Demonic Circle consists of two seperate spells, Demonic Circle: Summmon, which creates the demonic circle, and Demonic Circle: Teleport, which teleports the caster to his demonic circle. There are two main limitations on this spell, one with each half. Demonic Circle: Summon, which has a base cast time of .5 seconds, gives the warlock a 6 minute buff which is required to use Demonic Circle: Teleport. This buff is normally removed by timing out, although death, or leaving/entering an instance also removes. Demonic Circle teleport, which is an instant cast, is limited by a 40 yd range and a 30 second CD. These limitations mean that a warlock can not make this spell into a makeshift hearth, although effective application can be very useful. One VERY significant use for this spell is in boss fights where the boss casts a nova spell. Demonic Circle can effectively be used to move out of range or LoS of the nova up to the last second, taking into account GCD, and allowing warlocks to continue DPS'ing at a point when all other party members are running away. Soul Shards There is no plan to change the requirement of soul shard farming, but an "emergency soul shard" ability may be added. This is to keep the class feeling unique, but they don't want it to be tiresome. One minor glyph, Glyph of Drain Soul, causes the Drain Soul spell to occasionally create two soul shards instead of one. This does not apply to Shadowburn, and does not proc frequently. Macros Addons Many warlock addons used to revolve around sorting shards. However, as of Patch 1.9, this functionality was integrated into soul shard bags. * Necrosis LdC is based on Necrosis 1 by infernal. It is described by its author as "a mod to help Warlocks managing their stones, shards and summoning of demons". It provides sound notifications for various events, for example when Nightfall or Backlash combat states occur. It also has the ability to send party/raid notifications when casting SoulStone, Ritual of Souls, Ritual of Summoning — and many other messages, which can all be customised. As such, this is a very useful addon and perhaps the most widely used of all the Warlock specific addons. This addon works with * DoTimer is an addon that times DoTs that you cast on other people. It supports all classes, and it is written by Asheyla, 70 Undead Warlock, , Shattered Hand (Horde). There are four functions performed by DoTimer: the base DoT timer, a cooldown timer, a communications addon that lets you communicate your timers to others in your party, and a customizable notifications addon that can be set to notify you or others of specific events. This addon works with * LyLock provides enhanced actions for summons, Soulstone, Healthstone, Soulstone cooldown, and banish countdown timers. Notifications for events can be customized so individual editable messages are sent to other players by party, raid, or whisper. The Soulstone notification can be sent to other warlocks in your group by whisper. Also tracks total Soul Shard count and provides buttons for Fel/Demon Armor and other spells. LyLock 2.1.0 is a 2.1.0 WoW version of Lylock by another developer that builds on the original. This addon works with . * FocusFrame is not a Warlock specific addon, but can be extremely helpful for dealing with crowd control. It creates a frame like that of your target except this one shows your Focus instead. This allows you to keep track of crowd control debuffs such as fear or seduction without having to loose sight of your target or you can use it to DPS down two targets at once. Making use of focus casting macros is recommended in order to get the most out of this addon. This addon works with , but its primary features became incorporated with the standard UI in Patch 3.0.2. * RaidSummon will queue group/raid members that request to be summoned (by whispering you a specific keyword) and notify the warlock with an audio signal and a text message. Casting "Ritual of Summoning" will then summon the first player in the queue and — if the ritual succeeded (RaidSummon detects failures) - remove him from the list. Casting again will summon the next player and so on. Additionally, using the "Ritual of Summoning" action while targeting a raid/group-member will perform a normal ritual of summoning on him — preferring the target over already queued raid/group-members. This mod has not been updated for See also * List of Warlocks * Instance Grouping Guide Warlock — Advice for instances * Leveling a Warlock — Advice on the most efficient way to level a Warlock from 1-70. * Warlock patch history — Changes to the Warlock class * Spell Damage Coefficients External links * EU WoW forums * US WoW forums * Warlock @ Wikispaces - A warlock-specific wiki. * The Warlocks Den * Elitist Jerks Warlock Raiding Compendium - An in depth look at Warlock raiding and the theory behind it. * Warlock Builds - A listing of WOW warlock talent specs. Category:Classes Category:WoW classes Category:RTS classes Category:RPG classes Category:Warlocks fr:Démoniste